


3KK: The Talk

by crumbcake



Series: Three Kids Klance [12]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alpha Lance (Voltron), Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe - Domestic, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Non-Traditional Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Other, Parenthood
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-21
Updated: 2019-07-21
Packaged: 2020-07-10 08:47:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,772
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19903003
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crumbcake/pseuds/crumbcake
Summary: An unsettling, half-formed thought had been gnawing on Clara’s subconscious for a while, making her anxious. The feeling came to the fore anytime she observed her friends’ parents. Something about them compared to her family wasn’t adding up quite right. [E.g. It sinks in for Clara that her parents had her at a very young age. They talk.]





	3KK: The Talk

**Author's Note:**

  * For [](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts).



> Warnings: No warnings other than Clara is a firecracker. Maybe a little heartache for Keith. :)
> 
> Huge thanks to Madoshi for the amazing beta job and for spending the time imagining with me!! Thanks for inspiring! She wrote a fanpiece in my AU world centered on Shiro (the son) and Saul and I nearly died, they were such cute stories and truly a wonderful read, I urge you to check them out! [Edit: linking doesn't seem to work, you can search for her name or click on 'related works' on my ao3 page to find the fic, thanks!]

An unsettling, half-formed thought had been gnawing on Clara’s subconscious for a while, making her anxious. The feeling came to the fore anytime she observed her friends’ parents. Something about them compared to her family wasn’t adding up quite  _ right _ . She knew her family was different than the rest and that her parents would always look quite young compared to other parents; however, even with that in mind, the age thing was not making sense. She had a good handle on Earth culture and normal human milestones now. 

It hit her one day when she was heading back home after hanging out with Milton.

They had gone shopping for a birthday gift for his mom. Milton mentioned she was going to be 44 on Saturday. Clara knew that his dad was also in her forties. In fact,  _ most _ of Clara’s friend’s parents were in their early or mid-40’s. Clara stiffened, coming to an abrupt stop in the middle of the street. 

HER parents were barely in their mid-thirties! They didn’t just  _ look _ younger, they really were much younger than everyone else! And if she was seventeen and her dad just turned thirty-four in July… and her mom was one year older than her dad… she did some quick math (she was very good with numbers)-

Her parents had her at sixteen and seventeen!!!

_ She _ was seventeen.

What!

Some kind of dawning panic balled up inside. How could they have her at sixteen and seventeen?? And when exactly did they get bonded again?? What was the anniversary that was coming up? She never remembered other than it was a long time ago and who cares. Wait a minute. Clara gaped. She  _ remembered _ their makeshift bonding ceremony! That’s what that was, wasn’t it?! Much later, she had chalked up that fun memory as vow renewals. 

Clara started moving again, one fast determined step followed by another and then another. What the HELL. Why exactly did her parents have her so young? That didn’t make any sense considering the way they were always harping about ‘responsibility’ and ‘safe sex’. Safe sex!!! Safe sex her butt! They had no room to talk! None! She felt it right down to the pit of her stomach while her brain hissed in her parents' voices ‘ _ don’t make the mistake we did when we had you _ ’.

A knot started building in her stomach because really, that’s what it meant, right? There was no way that they had her on purpose. At seventeen? At war?? No way. 

She swung open the gate to the back with enough force that it ricocheted back towards her as she hurried towards the kitchen entrance.

Oh, her parents were going to hear about this. 

She found them in the kitchen.

Lance was coming in from the living room to drop Saul’s dirty snack bowl into the sink just as Keith was preparing to head out for a run. Lance did a double-take when he looked up at his daughter. Jesus, she looked possessed. He prepared himself for incoming teenage drama.

Clara eyed them critically. They barely looked old enough to be her older siblings.  _ C’mon _ . She wasn’t sure why but all of her thoughts on this was pissing her off to no end. She locked the kitchen door and stood in front of it, blocking her mom’s exit.

“Hi princesa,” said Keith very carefully, clearly aware that he was potentially walking through a minefield yet determined to go have his run. So pretending he saw nothing was the best bet. He stretched and asked casually, “How was school?” 

Clara responded with her usual finesse.

“YOU need to sit down!” She saw both of her parents visibly stiffen. Okay, maybe that came across a bit strong.

“Who are you talking to?!” Lance shot back in disbelief. He stared at her as if she had grown a second head. “I know you’re not talking to us!”

Keith said nothing, his face was carefully blank.

“Safe sex my ass!” 

Both of her parents grew pale and hurried towards her protectively.

Keith asked, “What happened?

“Does Marcelo’s parents know?” breathed Lance.

Clara gasped, “What?!”

Keith turned to Lance and asked anxiously, “It’s Marcelo’s?” just as his bondmate responded to Clara, “What?! What do you mean what?!”

“What’s Marcelo’s? You mean my friend Marcelo?? What about him?!” 

“What do you mean what’s Marcelo’s? It’s not Marcelo’s? Whose is it? Clara!” 

Keith couldn’t help but feel a touch disappointed. He kind of suspected that his daughter was possibly having sex and he had hoped it was with just the one person - the one he  _ knew _ she was into - and that she was not sleeping around. Which was also okay technically if she was having safe sex but still, it didn’t bring him comfort that she was sewing her wily oats like some kind of stereotypical alpha, pollinating a wild field of omegas, who does she think she is, he and Lance raised her better than that. 

Their daughter’s mouth kept bobbing closed and open, akin to a fish in the sea. She sputtered, “Whose is what?!”

“Are you siring a baby or not?!” asked Lance, annoyed.

“Me?!” She squawked. “I was talking about you!”

Lance gasped as he reared back and yelped, “Me who?!” His eyebrows did something bizarre and his head cocked in confusion.

“You who!!”

Lance whipped his head towards Keith and carefully repressed his joy as he whispered in awe, “You’re pregnant?”

“NO!” Keith blurted. “And I’m not gonna be pregnant! Three’s enough!!” He reinforced (and would reinforce until the end of time) and then tried to untangle what the hell was happening. “Clara- what- WHO is pregnant?”

“Oh so three’s  _ enough _ , huh?” She said, sarcastically.

Lance was always looking for an angle and Clara’s comment could only help his case. “She wants more siblings, Kitten. We can afford it,” he reasoned as he kept his eyes on his bondmate, hoping their daughter’s wish was enough to make Keith reconsider. 

If looks could kill Lance would’ve been long murdered. “Lance.” Keith warned in annoyance before swinging his gaze back to their daughter. “Who is pregnant, Clara?”

She looked horrified as the last few minutes finally fell into place in her head. “Marcelo is NOT pregnant. If he is, it’s not by me! I’m not having a baby!”

“Are you not having safe sex?” Lance’s concern for his daughter got him back on topic.

“I-” She wasn’t interested in revealing anything in any which way to her parents, particularly not her  _ mom _ . She shuddered to think what kind of annoying, humiliating and overbearing stuff was in store for her if he got even a sliver of information regarding any kind of sexual or romantic overtures in her life. Revealing the whole Marcelo thing had been so freaking annoying, she was sure Keith had the criminal, financial, and voting records of her friend and his entire family. 

“I was talking about  _ you _ not having safe sex.” She grumbled.

“Let me make sure I understand.” Said Lance very slowly, carefully enunciating. “You, Clara, are worried about us, your parents… having safe sex..?”

She sighed. “Look. How old are you?”

“Physically or spiritually?” 

“ _ Papi _ . How old are you?!” She asked through gritted teeth.

Now her parents were looking at her amused. 

“What’s it matter?” Lance asked just to torture her.

She was not to be derailed, “Fine. You guys are thirty-four and thirty-five!” She accused.

“Yeah. Okay?” Said Keith, gently prompting her for the point. He had become a creature of habit and he really wanted to go out for his run.

“You had me younger than me!!”

Keith stiffened and Lance smiled patiently, his eyes softening as he finally got what this was about. It has been a long time coming.

“Yeah, Clara, we did.” This was gonna be a sit-down kind of conversation. Lance moved away to take a seat at their dining table. 

Clara frowned as she watched him and followed, unsure how she felt. She drummed her fingers on the table, eyeing him speculatively and said as she slid into a seat, “I mean. What does that mean? Why did you have me at sixteen?”

She turned to look at Keith who appeared to freeze in place. He had grown pale and eyed her the way he did on some rare occasions when he didn’t think she noticed. He looked… guilty? Clara did not like that at all. Her temper shot up again, perhaps to hide the growing panic. 

“I was a friggin mistake, wasn’t I?” She blurted, looking directly at her mom.

“Clara.” Lance sighed. “Look-”

“All this talk about safe sex this and that and look at you guys!” She interrupted. “You have no room to talk!” 

The sheepish haunted look from Keith made things worse. The way he sat beside her and bit his lip as if quiet and meek when he was neither one of those things made Clara even more afraid.

“We just don’t want you making the mistakes we made.” Lance reasoned.

The confirmation she was so afraid of landed like a ton of bricks. “So I’m just a big mistake you gotta live with? WHY did you have me?” She demanded. “This explains a whole lot.” 

“Clara…” Keith said roughly. 

Lance kept glancing at his bondmate, growing unsettled and upset seeing his response and wanting to defend him. His own bittersweet memories of the time came to the fore. Clara had been so tiny and vulnerable and they were just kids at the time. They knew nothing. When he was sixteen, he was only at the start of who he later became and Keith was even less experienced or prepared. 

They just let the pregnancy happen, complete with unbearable silence on the topic. Somehow there was no real discussion despite Shiro’s (and really everyone’s) attempt to get them to grapple with the situation. But there was a war going on and their personal issues took a backseat. All Lance did was watch Keith’s belly grow bigger and secretly hope to hold his daughter in his arms. There was so much fear and vast emptiness and panic. 

Lance thought he understood where Clara was coming from but that time in their lives would always hit a raw nerve deep inside. “Clara, it wasn’t like that.” 

She glared and continued to trample down her unrelenting path. Her fire was so often brief but all-consuming, just like Keith. “It explains a lot. That’s why you treat me like shit. I’m the wrong kid to love.”

“Clara,” snapped Lance, outraged at her words. “If we didn’t love you-”

“Why don’t you let mami speak for himself,” Clara interrupted, her eyes fixed on Keith as if she were condemning him. She glared at how he knotted his hands together. “Or does he have nothing to say?”

“You’re on thin ice!” Lance warned.

Clara doubled down, hating when he threatened her like that. “Can’t handle a little truth?”

“Okay, now you’re grounded-”

“Big surprise. I don’t care.” She dismissed immediately which made Lance go off.

“Do you care that you’re off the cycler circuit? You’re cut off from any and all datastreams - ” She started shouting ‘that’s not fair!’ though Lance raised his voice right over hers, continuing, “and _ no _ allowance, life isn’t fair, Clara.”

Her eyes flashed with angry tears, as she began sarcastically, “I guess you’re only too happy to torture your walking, talking mistake.”

“You’re being a spoiled brat!”

“Because I asked you a question you didn’t like?!” She cried out, shooting up out of her seat. “You just love seeing see me suffer, don’t you?!”

Here we go. “Clara-”

“No!” She shouted. “I didn’t even do anything! It’s not fair how you treat me. Why couldn’t I have normal parents?”

He stood up too, jabbing a finger at his daughter’s direction. “We’re the parents you got whether you like it or not. You think we treat you bad? You’re old enough to know this is a two-way street.” He gestured back and forth between them. “You talk to us like we’re the shit you stepped on.” 

She opened her mouth as if to argue but he smacked the dinner table in frustration, startling her. “Enough.” All the stuff he and Keith had been through for their daughter. She has never wanted for anything. How could she even question their love for her?

“When have we not shown you love?” He demanded in rapid-fire speech, “When have we not worried about you or made sure you were okay? Why would we make the time for you and be proud of the things you do if we didn’t love you?”

Clara grew hot and red in the face.

“God, papi-” She began, exasperated, the roll of eyes clear in her expression even as weepy as she was.

“Princesa.” 

Keith’s tone, borne out of old pain, startled them enough to stop any further escalation. 

He looked on the verge of tears. Clara had never seen her mom so close to crying before. She paled as he gestured for her to sit back down. She wiped her own eyes as she sat.

Keith felt incredibly small and uncomfortable not being able to suppress his emotions when his nature was to be stoic. He bore looking her in the eye despite the guilt that weighed so heavily inside. She deserved honesty.

“Princesa, back then when I had you...”

He didn’t treat or love his daughter the way he should have when she was born… or for that full year of her life. How could he keep looking her in the eye and say this to her? How does one confess such a painful past?

“...I didn’t even know what love was.” 

Lance’s face twisted and his eyes grew red-rimmed, “Kitten..” 

They heard a creak and turned just in time to catch Shiro and Saul’s faces peeking in through the cracked open doorway. The kids’ eyes widened comically and they quickly vanished, slamming the door shut. How much did they hear? They must’ve caught the last thing Keith said. Who knows how that came across. Lance exchanged a quick look with Keith, jumped up and walked out to mind them. 

Keith smiled briefly watching his bondmate go then the corners of his mouth began to tremble slightly as he looked at his daughter. She looked shell-shocked. She was beautiful and ridiculous and perfect.

“If I could go back and change one thing...” 

The harsh feelings inside were making it very hard to talk. The hurt was worse than his labor with Clara. 

“If I could change just one thing... that first time I held you in my arms…” his voice broke, but he continued, whispering in anguish. “I would have hugged you. Told you I loved you. And kissed you and held you tight.” 

He hung his head in shame.

He was just starting to notice Clara’s stressed scent when she flung her arms around him, embracing him tightly, her face pressed to his shoulder. 

He hugged his daughter, gratefully. “I’m _ so sorry _ for how I was to you back then.” 

His words were just awful. Clara felt horrible. What was she thinking? She shouldn’t have gone off on them so fast. Her mom looked so  _ hurt _ . Her mom! Same guy that didn’t flinch when she accidentally programmed his jetcar to chase him (she was trying to figure out how to crack the permissions while keeping track of Keith).

“ _ Mami _ .” She cleared her throat. “God, you don’t have to be so dramatic…” She tried to be dismissive but failed miserably, it was all too much. She was relieved to hear his weepy chuckle nonetheless and whispered, “It’s okay, mami, please, don’t hurt.”

He clung to her.

Clara would think about this for a long time. Whatever happened or didn’t happen when she was a baby, she didn’t remember. What she did remember was that her mom and dad always hugged her when she cried and always laughed at her jokes and joined any hijinks. They encouraged her when she was down. They still do. She smiled to herself as she had quite a few memories of her mom nearly trampling her dad to get her in his arms after they had been apart for a while for some reason or another. 

Her parents always made their way back to her.

She clung to Keith just as hard.

“Is papi going to murder me?”

“I think so.” He laughed. “I don’t think I’ve seen him this mad with you before.”

Clara was going to find him and apologize (and figure out how to not be grounded on so many fronts, geez).

**Author's Note:**

> Dedicated to NishgoestoMars, I distinctly remember your comments on PPD and hope you read and hope this touches you re:the topic. :)


End file.
